A New Era- Part Four
by Saint
Summary: The Plot thickens- Gambit and Wolverine get a surprise and Scott begins to unravel the mystery. PLEASE R&R!!


Ok, I'm getting these done... the ideas are still flowing. Still lots to write but hopefully you all will stay with me on this. Please gimme some feedback. It's greatly appreciated.   
  
  
(Remy)   
  
"Dis is not worth da time, ami," I said to Logan through our com units. He was on the opposite corner of the roof, watching the sky. We had replaced Bobby-boy and Hank about an hour ago and done absolutely nothing since then. Logan didn't respond.  
  
"De air is cold. De sky is clear. Der' is nuttin' to fear. How can dis guy get into de Mansion, huh?"   
  
"Would you stop whinin' LeBeau," Wolverine replied. "I'm sick o' hearin' you bellyache."  
  
Satisfied that I got Logan just to speak I sat back and looked up into the sky. Despite the cold it was a wonderful night. The sky was clear like I said and the stars were shining.   
  
"I wish dat Rogue was on de shift wit' me," I said into my com "Den I could woo her wit' my Cajun charms."   
  
Logan grunted at me in reply. It almost sounded like a chuckle. I can never tell with that guy. He was so simple that it made him seem complex.   
  
"What are you talkin' 'bout Remy," I thought to myself. "Stop thinking deeply and enjoy the night and thinking about Rogue."  
  
Nobody could get into the Mansion anyways. Between cerebro and the Shi'ar designed security system, there was no way anybody was going to get close without us knowing. But Cyclops said that we needed to be here watching the sky and he's in charge now.   
  
I laid back and looked up into the sky, content, for the time being, with my thoughts of Rogue. I was thinking about our conversation earlier that day. I really did know how to get her all riled up. She is truly beautiful.   
  
The sky had faded to the visions of Rogue and our conversation when suddenly it came back into full view in brilliant light. Startled, I jumped up and started to call for Logan. He was at my side before I could get the words out and the two of us witnessed a young mutant appear in the sky.   
  
"About time we got some action," Logan growled. "Ready boy?"  
  
"Always wit you, ami."  
  
I reached for a couple cards and felt them begin to fill with energy as I brought them from my pocket. I stood with them glowing in my hand, next to Logan, and waited for the mutant to make a move. He just floated there, a little bit away from us, and watched us.   
  
"Who are ya', kid?" Logan called out. "I'm gonna gut ya' if yer not real nice 'bout telling me."   
  
I grinned. Logan was quite the diplomat.   
  
The mutant cocked his head a little, like we were in a glass case and he was observing us. He flew in a little closer. That was a bad idea.  
  
Logan jumped, growling as he flew. Up until this point he had kept his claws tucked neatly within his hands but as he jumped, they shot out and glimmered in the night. The mutant dodged Wolverine's leap but apparently he hadn't noticed the claws. Logan's three left claws slashed across the mutant, who was dressed all in loose black clothing, and left him bleeding from the chest.   
  
Logan hit the ground some forty feet below and looked up to see the affect his claws had had. The young mutant looked down at himself, startled. He just kept looking down at his chest and then down further at Logan and then back to his chest. It was like he couldn't believe that those adamantium claws had shot out of Logan's hands and nailed him in the chest.   
  
The mutant made a sudden move and I reached back to throw my cards. In the half second before I could get the cards thrown, the mutant looked into my eyes and squinted a little. I felt a wave like the air around me was being bent and shaken. That sensation suddenly became unimportant to me as I felt a sudden flash of terrible pain shoot from my hand and spread across my body. My cards had exploded in my hand.   
  
I hit the ground screaming and holding my shredded hand close to my body. It was possibly the worst pain I had ever felt. Everything got blurry. I looked up and saw the mutant begin to fly away and then in another glowing blast. As the light from his disappearance faded, so did my consciousness.   
  
  
(Scott)  
  
"Damn-it Logan!" I screamed at him in frustration. "You just had to jump into action. You didn't even contacted us below to let us know this guy was hear!"  
  
It was an hour since Logan had come running in the front door and alerted us that the mutant we were searching for had been in the sky above the Mansion. We ran up to the roof and found Remy passed out there with his hand torn to bits. It was a terrible sight.  
  
"I warned him," Wolverine said back angry. "It wasn't like I just jumped. I gave him a chance to back off and he came closer, so I followed through with my threat. Got the bastard too..."   
  
"Does it matter?" I asked, cutting him off. "Remy almost lost his hand and the guy got away!"  
  
Our argument was interrupted by Storm.   
  
"Scott, get out here now!" She said sounding uncharacteristically scared. "It's Jean... she's..."  
  
Not waiting for her to finish the sentence I bolted out the door. I met Hank and Bishop coming down the stairs with Jean and Warren in their arms and Colossus following behind. Jean and Warren looked pale.   
  
"What happened?" I asked sounding more scared than I should have. "Piotr, what happened?"  
  
"It was the mutant," he said, "Jean suddenly started to go into convulsions and..."  
  
After Piotr had gotten through the whole story I was absolutely dumbfounded. Nothing made sense. He attacked Jean and Warren, then Logan and Remy attacked him and the result? Three X-men incapacitated, one unable to use his powers, and one that I was truly pissed at. Things did not look good with this new mutant.  
  
I needed to figure all this out. I didn't have telepathic powers to fight this guy, or even to find out how to fight him. I didn't have Jean to talk to. I was frustrated to no end. I reassigned watch shifts with direct orders not to engage the mutant if he appeared again, then I left and headed for somewhere to think.  
  
Ten minutes later I sat down in a chair. I looked around. I knew I could think here. This was the place I had done lots of thinking over the years in this spot and gotten lots of help. I was in the chair facing the Professor's desk in his office. This was natural for me.  
  
"Well Professor," I said out loud. "I don't know what to do here. My wife is comatose in the med lab, my mind is drained of ideas. I don't know how to find this guy. I don't even know what he can do."   
  
I knew it was foolish to be talking to the Professor. He couldn't hear me. It was just habit but it helped me think better.   
  
"I know that I have to do all this without you now but I'm scared to make a mistake. Funny, I can almost hear you telling me that being afraid to make a mistake is the best way to make them."   
  
I smiled to myself. I knew that I knew just about everything the Professor would say to me if he were here. Now all I had to do was figure out how to handle this situation in particular.   
  
"Thanks Charles," I said quietly to myself. "It's good to know that you're hear for me even after your death."   
  
(Bobby)  
  
Scott seemed to have a different look to his eye when he came down the stairs the next morning. He looked more confident, more casual, and more... like the Professor? It was odd to look at him like that.   
  
Remy had woken up about 6:30 that morning and Warren a little later. I think it was the earliest either of them had ever gotten up willingly. Warren seemed sluggish, he couldn't put together complete sentences without a lot of effort. Remy just kept looking at his hand and cussing it out in French. I sat with the two and we discussed the guy who had caused all this trouble. Everyone was shaken up.  
  
Jean, however, has not woken up. Storm had done some scans on her and sent them to Moira, who said that here was no brain damage. We honestly had no idea why she was still asleep, she just was.   
  
Scott came over and sat down with the three of us on the couch in the tv room.   
  
"How's your hand feel Remy?" he asked. "How long before you think it will heal?"  
  
"It's hurtin' like de jerk needs to be dealt with, but it will heal in a week or two," Remy replied sounding annoyed. "And I still got my other hand. When I catch 'im, I'm gonna blow his freakin' hand off 'is arm."  
  
Scott smiled a little. "You'll get your chance Remy. We'll find this guy. Warren, you ok? You still look pale."  
  
"I'm... I'm still not completely...able to think straight," he replied slowly. "I don't remember everything."  
  
"You never were a very bright boy," I said trying to lighten the mood. "You rich boys never have to actually think. You just live off daddy's money."  
  
Warren forced a smile, knowing I wasn't serious. Scott started to get up but got a look on his face like something struck him as odd and sat down again.   
  
"Guys," Scott said thoughtfully, "can you both clarify something for me?"  
  
They both nodded.  
  
"Tell me about how the guy looked, like how did he seem before the fighting broke out?"  
  
Remy, as usual was first to speak. "He looked odd to me, ami. Young looking, like 'bout sixteen. 'E had dark black hair and bright red eyes. All done up in black too. But as for 'is look... like a little kid looking at some'ting entirely too complex, you know?"  
  
"I agree," Warren said. "He was just kinda floating there looking at us like we were bugs or something. If Jeanie hadn't been writhing in agony, we woulda just sat there and stared at him."   
  
"That's what struck me about both of your stories," Scott said in full Sherlock mode. "Even the security tapes of him from the front of the Mansion seemed odd. He was... he was examining you."   
  
"Well I f***in' surprised him with the claws," Logan said as he walked into the room. "He obviously wasn't watchin' to closely."  
  
Scott didn't reply. He was still PO'ed with Wolverine for jumping to fight so quickly.   
  
"I'm just not sure what this guys deal is. First he's saving our lives, then he's sending Jean..." he slowed down as he said her name, obviously very concerned for his wife, "sending Jean into a coma. Finally he comes to Mansion and dukes it out with Logan and Remy."   
  
Scott got up and headed down stairs without another word. We continued to talk a little about it before our conversation turned towards other things, women in particular, and we acted like a normal bunch of guys for a while.  
  
(Scott)  
  
I had been sitting there in the War Room for close to 4 hours. Jean still had not woken up and I was still dumbfounded about this guy. He just wasn't consistent, as far as I could tell. He seemed to be both helpful, hurtful and benign all at once...  
  
"He is coming that can change it all. He will be our end or our salvation or nothing at all. You must find him! You must make it right! The world will change. You will change. It's changing now..."  
  
The Professor's words echoed in my head. He must have been talking about this guy. He's everything the Professor said. He can change things, he was Storm's salvation of sorts. It was all to surreal for me and that's a hard statement to swallow coming form an X-man who had seen the most bizarre mutants, traveled to space to see my "dead" Father, battled powerful villains and done just about every dangerous thing known to man, or mutant-kind.  
  
I had been watching these security tapes the whole time. Every second of Logan and Remy's encounter with that new mutant was burned into my head form every angle. I still kept thinking I was missing something.  
  
He appears and I see Remy get up ("I'll have to talk to him about daydreaming while he's on watch later") and Logan run from the other side of the building. He floats there while the two call out to him. Remy has his cards out, Logan did not have his claws out. Then the mutant boy moves in closer, like he's getting a better look and then Logan jumps.   
  
The guy was fast. Logan came off the roof fast and this guy got out of the way before Logan could nail him. I think if he had realized the claws were coming he could have dodged them too.   
  
I rewound the tape and watched Logan's jump again. The mutant rolled out of the way and then didn't see the claws shoot out of the hands until they had slashed his chest. The surprise on his face looked more like someone startled than someone hurt. It was crazy how well he took that slash.   
  
Before I could start my next thought my com beeped and Storm was on the other end.   
  
"He's appeared again," she said calmly. "Do we go?"   
  
"Assemble the team," I said.   
  
Time to get some answers.  



End file.
